Braindead (film)

Plot

In 1957, explorer Stewart McAlden (Bill Ralston), leads his team out of Skull Island with a captured Sumatran Rat-Monkey, a hybrid creature that resulted from the rape of tree monkeys on the island by plague-carrying rats. During the team’s escape from warrior natives, who demand the return of the creature, Stewart is bitten by the Rat-Monkey and is hacked to pieces. The captured Rat-Monkey is shipped to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand.

In Wellington, Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) lives in a Victorian mansion with his domineering mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody). When he was a child, Lionel’s father drowned trying to save him at the beach, and the incident has haunted him into adulthood. To Vera's dismay, Lionel falls in love with Spanish Romani shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita María Sánchez (Diana Peñalver). When the two visit the Wellington zoo on a date, Vera follows them and is bitten by the rat-monkey, and though she appears fine initially, the following day she grows more and more decrepit, culminating in her eating her ear after it falls off during a lunch with friends. She appears to die before reanimating as a ravenous zombie and kills the attending nurse, who also returns as a zombie, before Lionel locks them in the basement and keeps them sedated with animal tranquilisers. While visiting Paquita, Lionel is given a pendant for luck by her grandmother. Vera is able to break out of the basement and is apparently killed when struck by a tram.

At her funeral, Lionel tranquilizes Vera to keep her from attacking the mourners, and while returning to the graveyard to administer more of it he is intercepted and beaten by a group of hoodlums, who assume him to be a necrophiliac. Vera bursts from her grave and in the ensuing commotion one of the hoodlums and the local priest (Jed Brophy and Stuart Devenie) are killed and turned into zombies, forcing Lionel to also hide them in the basement. After the nurse and priest copulate and produce a zombie baby, Lionel breaks up with Paquita to keep her safe. Shortly afterward Lionel's uncle Les (Ian Watkin) arrives to wrangle with Lionel over Vera's estate. Discovering the "stiffs" in the basement, Les blackmails his nephew into giving up the house and his inheritance and invites his friends over for a housewarming party despite Lionel’s objections.

During the party, Paquita arrives to try and make amends with Lionel. She discovers the zombies in the basement, and Lionel explains to her all that has occurred. She is able to convince Lionel to administer poison to the zombies to finally kill them, but after injecting the zombies with it he discovers the poison is in fact animal stimulants. They narrowly escape the now-enhanced zombies, who burst into the house upstairs and slaughter the party guests. The guests subsequently reanimate and begin to attack the survivors, including Paquita and Lionel, who are separated in the ensuing mayhem. Lionel enters the house with a lawnmower and proceeds to destroy the zombie horde within, while Paquita kills the zombified Les, who has been killed by a now-monstrous Vera. She erupts from the basement and pursues them both to the rooftop as the house catches fire from a burst gas pipe.

As Vera corners them on the roof, Lionel confronts his mother and reveals that he witnessed Vera drowning his father and his father's lover in the bathtub as a child. Vera becomes enraged and swallows Lionel with an opening in her stomach before trying to kill Paquita. Lionel cuts his way out of his mother's body with the pendant given to him earlier, causing Vera to fall back into the burning house. Lionel and Paquita escape the burning rooftop as the fire brigade arrives. They kiss as he throws the pendant, then walk away arm-in-arm.

Production

Principal photography took place over eleven weeks on location in and around Wellington, New Zealand on a reputed budget of around $3 million. The nighttime cemetery scene was filmed at the Karori Cemetery in the Karori neighbourhood of Wellington.

Jackson reused the song played on the organ as the mourners wait to enter the church prior to the embalming scene. It is Sodomy from his previous film Meet the Feebles (1989).

The first scene to be shot and the opening scene, filmed on "Skull Island", was filmed at Putangirua Pinnacles, the same location he would later use for the Paths of the Dead in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Bob McCarron, recently known for his on-screen appearances as Dr Bob from the UK television show I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and its German version Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!, designed the special prosthetic makeup. He was awarded at Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival and nominated for Saturn Award (see below for all awards).

The final scene to be shot was the section in the park with Lionel and the zombie baby Selwyn. The film was finished one week ahead of schedule and with NZ$45,000 remaining, so Jackson used all this remaining budget to film the park scene over the course of two days. He has gone on to say that this is his favourite scene and the funniest in the whole film.

Filming locations

Lawsuit

In Bradley v WingNut Films Ltd [1993] 1 NZLR 415, it was alleged that Braindead had infringed the privacy of the plaintiffs by containing pictures of the plaintiff's family tombstone. After reviewing the New Zealand judicial authorities on privacy, Gallen J stated: "the present situation in New Zealand ... is that there are three strong statements in the High Court in favour of the existence of such a tort in this country and an acceptance by the Court of Appeal that the concept is at least arguable." This case became one of a series of cases which contributed to the introduction of tort invasions of privacy in New Zealand.

Release

The film was released in a number of different versions:

Critical reception

Although Braindead did not receive much critical attention at the time of its release, Jackson's fame with The Lord of the Rings led to more interest in his earlier films. The contemporary response to the film was positive: the film received an 88% rating of positive reviews based on 34 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's consensus is: "The delightfully gonzo tale of a lovestruck teen and his zombified mother, Dead Alive is extremely gory and exceedingly good fun, thanks to Peter Jackson's affection for the tastelessly sublime." Metacritic rated it 54 out of 100 based on 7 reviews.

At the time of its release, David Stratton of Variety gave a positive review, calling it "Jackson's best film to date" and praising its humour, acting, and technical qualities (gore effects, makeup). He stated "Kiwi gore specialist Peter Jackson, who goes for broke with an orgy of bad taste and splatter humor. Some will recoil from the gore, but Braindead wasn't made for them."

In 2016, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. Braindead placed at number 91 on their top 100 list.

Accolades

Home media

The film has had several releases on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD around the world. It was released on Blu-ray with the US 97-minute cut for the first time on 4 October 2011 by Lions Gate Entertainment.

Legacy